


Underwater

by kristsune



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Brief suicide ideation, Child Abuse, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Manipulation, but really isn't thinking things through, grace is wonderful and can do no wrong, luther is just doing what he's told, much more hurt than comfort though, reginald is a manipulative dick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-23 17:25:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18554389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kristsune/pseuds/kristsune
Summary: Reginald finds a new way to test Diego's abilities. Diego is not a fan of his methods.





	Underwater

**Author's Note:**

> This was a prompt from [dreamwidth](https://umbrellakink.dreamwidth.org/284.html?thread=74780) that i kind of just had to do. Basically Diego has a fear of being underwater, and its thanks to Reginald.

Diego was rarely  _ truly _ scared, but right now? Chained to the bottom of the pool, he was utterly  _ terrified _ . Reginald was testing his powers again, this time the ability to hold his breath.

The first round of tests were just of him holding his breath, timed under Reginald’s watchful eye. But when he really felt his lungs burning, even though he  _ knew _ he could still hold his breath, he would breathe in anyway. It was a  _ reflex _ , he felt the need to breathe, so he  _ did _ . After that Reginald decided he needed to find a way to prevent Diego from doing that. So, he got moved to the large tub upstairs. 

He ended up with the same problem, after a certain point he would eventually feel the need tp surface to breathe. Once Reginald brought in Luther to hold him under, and like the  _ good little boy _ he was, he held Diego under. Diego had bested all his previous best times by at least a couple hours. He  _ hated _ looking weak or inferior in front of Luther, but it had still gotten to be too much and he started to struggle against Luther’s hold. Luther had strength over him anyday, but especially in such a prone position, and panic starting to set in, Diego just started scratching and pulling at his arm. In hindsight, it was probably why Reginald had denied him any knives during this test. 

Luther eventually let him up, and Diego couldn’t bring himself to feel bad about the scratch marks all over his arm. Reginald looked disappointed, and Luther actually looked contrite for once in his life. Diego didn’t care and stormed out of the room. He still felt like he couldn’t fill his lungs, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to say a damn word to either of them without his stutter. 

This time though, Reginald had Diego meet him at the pool. He was dubious at best, but Reginald was Reginald and Diego couldn’t say no. 

“Number Two. Put these on and get in the water.” Reginald handed Diego a nose plug and a set of leg shackles. They mostly looked like regular ones, except they were really heavy duty, with extra squares of metal attached to each cuff, probably to keep him weighted to the bottom. There was a long chain link between them, so he could at least move around, or kick himself to the surface when he needed to. 

Diego took a deep breath, and jumped in. He had been right the cuffs were quite heavy, but he could still move if he put extra effort into it. He looked up through the clear water to see Reginald moving towards the wall. Diego shifted a little further towards the center to see if he could get a better view when Reginald opened a panel in the wall and did something he couldn’t quite see. 

The shackles were suddenly pulled to the bottom of the pool. Diego tried tugging at them but they held fast. He looked up to see Reginald writing in his damn notebook and then start to set up one of his video cameras. He set him up. He did all of this to keep Diego underwater. If he hadn’t been holding his breath at the moment he would have screamed. 

He tugged at the shackles again, starting to feel desperate; panic building in his chest. How long would Reginald leave him down here? What would happen if he actually ran out of breath? What if he passed out before he could get to the top? Would anyone even know if that happened? He wished he could take a few deep breaths to try and stem the panic but that was completely out of the question and that just made everything _so_ _much_ _worse_. 

Diego tried whatever he could to stay calm and focused while chained to the bottom of the pool. He tried closing his eyes for awhile, but it just made everything feel more closed in. At least Reginald gave him the small mercy of putting him in the saltwater pool, so he wasn’t in added constant pain from chlorine. 

He tried to focus on the pattern in the pool, the variations in the coated concrete, the rough textures, but it wasn’t helping. Everything just felt like it was grating against his skin. He could feel it rubbing wherever he was held against the floor of the pool. It was going to start rubbing his skin raw if he was in there much longer.

His lungs were burning and his head was pounding. It was like the air he was holding in his lungs was expanding further and further trying to cope without fresh air. He wrapped his arms around his chest to try and keep himself together. It helped a little, but it wasn’t enough. 

He occasionally tried to stretch and flex, just to keep from cramping, but everytime he did it just pulled at his cuffs. His ankles were already rubbed raw, and the saltwater might help keep it clean, but it hurt like a bitch. 

Diego had no idea how much time had passed, but he knew he had been holding his breath longer than he ever had before; it had to be  _ days _ by this point. His jaw was sore from clenching his teeth so hard he was afraid me might crack a tooth. He idly thought what it would feel like if he just… opened his mouth, if he just breathed in anyway. He didn’t think he could actually  _ do _ it, but almost  _ anything _ would be better than the pain he was currently in. 

 

Diego looked up at movement at the surface. Reginald had left him after the first few hours, with the camera running, and would only come back occasionally. Diego took to ignoring him everytime he was there. But there were others with him this time. It was hard to tell, Diego hadn’t slept the entire time he was in the water, afraid he would accidentally take a breath if he had, but it looked like Luther, and maybe Mom a little further back.

Reginald went to the panel and reversed whatever he had done, the shackles released from the bottom of the floor. Diego tried to push off and swim to the surface but his muscles felt like jelly and he struggled to even get halfway up. Panic flared sharp again, to be so close to the surface and to not be able to make it… was just too much for him to handle. 

A hand grabbed his forearm and hauled him out of the water. Diego laid on his side, coughing and taking huge gulps of air. He could feel tears mixing with the water streaming down his face, but he couldn’t bring himself to care that much. He could  _ breathe _ again. He would never,  _ ever _ take advantage of that again. 

He could just hear Reginald over his ragged breathing, “Thank you Number One, I had a feeling Number Two would be too weak to get out on his own.”

The combination of shame and rage Diego felt was almost too much to bear, like it was going to boil over and flood the room. Reginald was lucky he didn’t have anything at hand to throw, because he knew he would not have been able to restrain himself in that moment.

Diego startled when he felt Luther’s hand on his shoulder, and he focused all that hate he couldn’t direct at Reginald and he projected it onto Luther. He hated Luther’s strength, hated Luther’s preferential treatment, hated that  _ he _ didn’t have to get locked away anywhere to test his abilities without his consent. Diego shook him off, leaning up on shaky arms, “ _ D-don’t t-touch m-me _ .” He tried to put as much venom into the words as he could, but between how hoarse it was from disuse, and his stutter which always lessened the sting of sharp words, he wasn’t sure how successful he was. Luther still recoiled as if burned, so some feeling must’ve gotten through his thick skull. 

Reginald tossed a set of keys to Diego, “Unlock yourself, and go with Grace to the infirmary. You will no longer be needed today. Lessons start again at the usual time tomorrow.” 

Diego couldn’t bring himself to even answer, knowing he would just get himself into trouble once he opened it. Grace came over and wrapped a towel around his shoulders after he managed to stand on his own. She tactfully kept her arm around his shoulder as she walked him to the infirmary, keeping him upright, but not obviously so. She knew him well enough that she realized he wouldn’t want to lose any more face in front of Reginald and Luther than he already had.   
  
Diego stumbled when they were almost at the infirmary, and he would have went down but Mom scooped him up in her arms now that no one else was around. Normally Diego would be embarrassed, but she was so  _ strong _ in every way that Luther wasn’t, and he actually felt safe in her arms, and he  _ knew _ he couldn’t walk any further, completely exhausted from everything. So he tucked his head against her shoulder as she hummed a soothing melody, willing to take what comfort he could get, where he could get it. 

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to come by and say hi on [tumblr!](https://kristsune.tumblr.com/)


End file.
